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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Divergence

Hello lovely readers! For this post I have this colorful divergence mani to show you. In the pictures I'm holding China Glaze Life Preserver, a dusty orange creme. Orange is probably my least favorite color when it comes to nail polish (next to browns), but I actually really like Life Preserver in this mani! It adds that bit of warmth to the whole. The other polishes you see in this tape mani are Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away (absolutely smitten with this polish ♥) and China Glaze 2030, the gold chrome. Thank you for reading! :-)

Oh my, you're making me blush! :$ Thank you, thank you! I'm studying Communication and Multimedia Design to become a visual or interface designer. But my dream is to become designer of lots of things, graphic things but also clothing, bags, interior/furniture... <3

This isn't a question for this entry but just in general: How long does it take you to do some of these designs? I have drawn a lot of inspiration from them but often feel like it takes me longer than it should and that's kind of obnoxious :P So, for example, how long does it take you to do something like the design above? Or any of the other entries you have on this page?

Hi there! Thanks for your question. My tape manis can take up 10 min to an hour, depending on a few different things.

The first is the basecolor I use. Most basecolors need two coats for coverage which means it takes pretty long to fully dry before I can put tape on it. That's why I usually do tape manis on a basecolor that I applied the day before. So I enjoy a plain color the first day, and the second (or third) I can immediately place tape on it to create something new. This saves a lot of time and I don’t have to worry the polish is still wet. In other cases I'll use a quickdrying topcoat (usually Seche Vite) that allows me to place tape on my basecolor after about 15 minutes.

Also the difficulty of a design affects the time it takes to make. Some designs need you to cut more tape strips than others and with designs with more than two colors (so multiple tape sessions like in the double lightning bolt tutorial) you’ll have to wait more between each layer of polish.

Tips to speed up the taping process are applying the basecolor the day before and using quickdrying topcoat, like earlier mentioned. And using quickdrying onecoaters is really helpful too. You might’ve noticed I use China Glaze 2030 (and Millenium) and Color Club Where’s The Soiree? a lot in my tape manis. That’s because they cover well and dry within several minutes.

I hope these few tips will help you with your tape mani adventures, good luck!

Hi there! My nails are real. I have to admit I don't really do anything special to keep them strong and healthy as they're pretty strong themselves. Once or twice a week I'll push back the cuticles with Orly Cutique and I use handcream several times a day to keep them moisterized. :-)